Judy Murphy

Judy Murphy has worked as the librarian at Masters since before many students at the school were even born. Although Murphy will be retiring, in her 16 years here, she has made a great impact as an advisor, teacher and book enthusiast. 

Prior to coming to Masters, Murphy worked on Wall Street as a broker and on the trading floor dealing with corporate bonds. After 14 years, she decided to leave the stressful environment of her busy Manhattan job to tackle the role of a library clerk at the Briarcliff Manor public library. Murphy also worked as a librarian in the Irvington and Garrison school districts before coming to Masters in 2005.

During her time at Masters, Murphy was an advisor to clubs such as Young Activists, and she initiated the parent association book club, the annual middle school book fairs, and co-founded the Westchester Poetry Festival with Former Associate Head of Upper School Chris Goulian. 

The festival in particular attracts many students from around the County each year, and this year featured award-winning poet Reginald Dwayne Betts as the keynote speaker. 

“I always tried to make it a priority that it would be student-centered so that our kids would get a chance to read at the festival,” Murphy said. 

Besides organizing events and clubs, Murphy enjoys interacting with students in both the Upper School and Middle School. 

“I see my job as very responsive. If there was an inquiry that came in from a student like ‘Oh, do we have a book on such and such?’ then I will go and fulfill whatever inquiries that might come up during the day.” Murphy continued, “I love engaging with the middle schoolers, too, because they are still really avid readers. I love when they come up and offer me suggestions of what books we should have [in the library].”

Ben New and Charlie Cooper, both advisees of Murphy, said they have enjoyed the time they spent with her and appreciate her thoughtfulness and kindness. 

Cooper said, “She always comes in smiling and is happy to see us. She’s always interested in all of us and is always here to support us. That’s all you can ask [an advisor] for.”

New echoed Cooper’s words. He said, “Every single day she’ll ask us, ‘How’s everyone doing?’ or ‘How are we feeling today?’ She really tries to bring the most out of us, and that’s something I’m definitely gonna miss.”

Looking back over her years at Masters, Murphy said she was impressed with the brightness of her students and the selflessness of her colleagues.

“It’s really been a joy to be able to sort and oversee the resources here and just to enlighten, light a fire for somebody, and feed their curiosity,” she said.

Knots of Love crochets for good

Ellie Yang

Students learned the process of turning yarn into hats in the Knots of Love: crocheting for good WinterMission course. All hats were donated to the Knots of Love foundation.

Over the four days of Wintermission, 14 students gathered to put their love and care into learning the skill of crocheting in order to create hats and donate them to the Knots of Love non- profit organization. 

Founded in 2007 by Christine Fabiani, Knots of Love is a charity focused on donating handmade hats to cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Upper School History Teacher Colleen Roche and Upper School Math Teacher Arlene Casey created this course on crocheting together after discovering the foundation in their Wintermission planning process.

Roche came across Knots of Love last summer through an internet search. “I went through a number of different groups before I settled on Knots of Love. There is a website called Charity Navigator that will give a score to charities, and they got 100% whereas some of the others I was looking at did not,” she said. 

Roche and Casey decided to focus on crocheting for their Wintermission to be a power for good in the world; both teachers learned the skill at a young age and enjoyed its hands-on experience. 

“We live in a time where so much of our day is taken up by electronics, so I liked the idea of making this course a chance for students to gain that skill and have that joy of creating something that is low-tech,” Roche said.

Senior Grace Vogel echoed Roche’s sentiments, saying she also enjoyed the hands-on time away from technology. “It was really calming, and a spiritual experience. My friends and everyone in the course bonded through it,” she said.

For Casey, a highlight of Wintermission was seeing the students’ progression as they learned to crochet. “I remember having conversations with several people on day one being like ‘I’m not gonna be able to finish a hat for you’, and on day two people were like ‘I get it, it’s making sense,” she said. “It was really exciting to be able to see a visible product of their growth as hats there on the table.”

Aside from crocheting hats, the group also traveled together to Joann Fabrics, The Queens County Farm Museum, and talked over zoom with Knots of Love founder Fabiani. During the online meeting, Fabiani shared insights on how the company was founded as well as its impact today. “I started just from a passion of mine, and my son saying, ‘Make me a beanie’. And now here we are, we’ve donated our 500,000th beanie,” she said. 

 Fabiani also said to the students, “You are making something for someone that you’ll never know, and they’re going to receive it, for free. And knowing that someone handmade it means the world to those we donate to. Don’t worry if your beanie isn’t perfect, it’s a style, and remember that you can always plop on a flower.”

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